This invention relates to cooking ovens, particularly of the convection type wherein heated air is circulated through an oven cavity to produce rapid even cooking and/or baking, and specifically to a provision for pyrolytic self-cleaning in such ovens. In a specific embodiment, the invention also relates to self-cleaning of a conveyor-type continuous oven. No practical self-cleaning convection continuous cooking type ovens are commercially available. However, a self-cleaning feature is particularly desirable where such ovens are used in busy restaurant kitchens for long hours of service, for example as are typical in fast-food restaurants which may operate from eighteen to twenty-four hours a day, and may use the oven to prepare a variety of quite different products during such a period.